Instructional Focus Lesson Plan for
Grade 3
Writing Strategies: Standard 1.3
Understand the structure and organization of various reference materials (e.g.,
dictionary, thesaurus, atlas, encyclopedia).
1. Introduce Objective
 In 2nd grade, we learned the purpose of reference materials. Dictionaries
are used to show us the spelling, pronunciation, and meanings of words,
an atlas shows us the locations of places, encyclopedias give us facts and
information about people and things, and a thesaurus gives us synonyms
or alternative words. Now that you are in 3rd grade, you’ll be using these
reference materials much more as you revise and edit your writing. In
order to use reference materials effectively you have to understand their
structure and how they are organized. Today we will look closely at
several of these materials, the dictionary and thesaurus, to determine their
organization so you will know how to use them as you revise your
writing.
2. Model
 To use a dictionary effectively you must first understand how words are
entered in a dictionary. All words are placed in the dictionary
alphabetically. Let’s pretend I’m writing a report on dogs. One of the
dogs I will talk about is the beagle. As I’m revising my first draft, I’m not
completely sure of the spelling. Is beagle spelled beagle or beagel? I
know the first four letters are b-e-a-g, so I turn to the “B” section of my
dictionary. Now I’ll let the guide words help me. Guide words are the
two words found at the top of a dictionary page. All the words found on
this page must fall between these two words alphabetically. By using the
guide words to first locate the page the word is on, I save myself a lot of
time because I don’t have to search every page.
Since I know my first two letters are b-e-, I flip through pages until I
find the Guide Words Be/bearer. The first two letters of my word and
the two Guide Words are the same. The 3rd letter of beagle is the same
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as the 3rd letter in “bearer” and the 4th letter of beagle is a “g” which
comes before the 4th letter in bearer, “r”. I know that I’ll find beagle on
this page. Next I use my pointer finger and skim the page until I find
beagle. It’s the 5th word on the page. I look carefully at the spelling.
Beagle is spelled b-e-a-g-l-e. I’m sure glad I checked, because I thought
the last two letters were e-l.
Today I was looking up the word beagle to check its spelling, but
spelling is only one part of what a dictionary is used for. Each word
entry also tells us the meaning of the word. Sometimes a word has more
than one meaning. When I use a word in my writing I need to make sure
it’s really the right word for the sentence. If I’m not sure, I can look in
the dictionary to be certain the word fits.
Let’s go back to that report I’m writing on dogs so I can give you an
example of when you would use this strategy. In my report, I am
writing about the reason dogs pant. They do this to stay cool because
they don’t sweat like humans. This is the sentence I wrote in my report:
When dogs inhale, they breathe in fresh cool air through their cool
wet noses. I really want to use the word inhale because it sounds great,
but I want to make sure it fits. I think inhale means “breathing in”, but
I’m not absolutely sure. Using the guide words again, I find the page
with inhale. Then I skim the page until I find the word. “Inhale” has 2
entries, or meanings. The first one is “to breathe in; draw in by
breathing” That is exactly what I thought inhale means and it certainly
fits in my sentence. As you look up words for meaning, you’ll notice
that many words have more than one meaning.
Sometimes when I’m rereading my writing, I discover that I’ve
used the same word many times. Good writers try to have a lot of
variety in their vocabulary. The reference material I can use to help me
gain this variety is a thesaurus. When I reread my dog report, I
discovered that I used the word “large” many times. I mark these
repetitious words and try to replace them with different words that have
the same meaning. These words are called synonyms. The thesaurus has
thousands of words and their synonyms. Just like a dictionary, a
thesaurus has guide words. I find the page that has lacking and lather
as the guide words. I know that “large” goes between these two words,
so it should be found on this page. I’ll skim the page and find “large”.
There it is. The letters “adj” you see after the word “large” stands for
adjective. This tells you that large and all its synonyms are adjectives,
or describing words. Some of the synonyms listed for “large” are “big,
great, oversize, gigantic, huge, and immense.” These are words that I
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can use instead of large. By doing this, my writing vocabulary will have
a lot more variety and should be much more interesting for my reader.
3. Guided Practice
 Group children in pairs. Teacher passes out dictionaries to pairs and
has children practice using the following strategies:
1. Using Guide Words to locate page a given word is found;
2. Skimming a page to find a given word;
3. Locating the entries for a given word and determining if that word
could be used in a specific sentence.
 Group children in pairs. Teacher passes out a thesaurus to each pair
and has children practice using the following strategies:
1. Using Guide Words to locate page a given word is found;
2. Skimming a page to find a given word;
3. Locating synonyms for a given word.
4. Independent Practice
 There are 3 Student Pages in this lesson plan; one for Guide Words,
one for entry meanings, and one for finding synonyms in a thesaurus.
 Teacher passes out a student page and instructs students to complete it
independently. Review whole class.
5. Assessment
 The Assessment provided covers all three areas that were addressed in
the Student Pages used during Independent Practice.
 Teacher passes out student assessment and goes over instructions.
 Students complete Assessment.
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